What Vayikra Teaches About Love, Not Just Sacrifice

Okay guys, we dive into Safer Vayikra, the book of Leviticus, a new venture, a new book. There's an ancient tradition that when you start teaching young children Torah, when they first start learning, the first thing you teach them is vikra. You start from vikra. Most schools do it symbolically because it's a hard it it's not necessarily relatable. All the laws of corbanis of sacrifices might not be relatable to a five, sixy old, sevenyear-old. Um but at the very least the schools start from vayikra on a symbolic level as opposed to from Genesis or from Exodus. And this is reflective of how fundamental this uh book of the Torah is because it is in detail a detailed description of what God enjoys. A pleasant scent to God. The sacrifices in more than half of Shamos I believe it's more than half. We describe the Mishkan. We describe the tabernacle, the sanctuary for God. In the majority of Vayikra of Leviticus, we describe what we do in that sanctuary of God, which is the corbanis, the sacrifices, the gifts. And um if anybody's vegan here, you're going to want to sit this one out. By the way, [snorts] you might not like this. No, I'm kidding. [laughter] Um, but but it's all about the truth is there are some vegan sacrifices. There's the wine liabbations. There are the bread offerings. Okay, you're good. You're good. There's something for everybody. Okay, we we Yeah, we're here for everybody. We want everybody to feel good. [snorts] But the reason why I I I say this is because first of all, this isn't even the main point I wanted to mention, but I think there's an important observation here. When it comes to the structure of the temple, it's a temporary structure. The Torah goes into great detail into how to build a structure that is temporary, that is meant to be temporary, that was never meant to last. It's going to later be rebuilt in Jerusalem in its permanent setting at the Temple Mount. Yet these sacrifices are permanent. The temple itself not permanent. What goes on in the temple is permanent. The same sacrifices described here are going to be performed when we get to Jerusalem. So there is a certain permanence to the gifts that we offer to God. There are multiple types of corbanis types of sacrifices. There's different genres. There is the type of sacrifice one might feel like they want to give out of the kindness of their own heart. We call that a nava, a donation. There's types of sacrifices that are obligatory. If one sinned, they have to bring a sacrifice. And depending on the type of sin, they might have to bring multiple sacrifices and different types of of sacrifices to atone for their sin. Which I put this in brackets, but it's interesting to note how expensive sinning was back in the day in biblical times. Like it might not be worth it. Right now sinning is very cheap until Msiah comes. You might have to bring all those corbonas but for now it's cheap which I think says a lot about us. If we are going to refrain from sinning it's because we really don't want to sin. It's not because of the money the the money. Then there's sacrifices corban gifts offerings that are associated with holidays. Then there's sacrifices and that are associated with just the daily offering the corpid brought every single day consistently. So you'll have a special for the every day the corpid you'll have a corban special sacrifice for whatever holiday oresh or special day it may be you'll have a special sacrifice that is obligatory dependent on the type of sin one did. if there was uh a transgression of a sin, if it was a neglect of a mitzvah, right? There's different kurban, different sacrifices that need to be brought in and and and these various sacrifices are unpacked throughout the whole of Leviticus throughout the whole of safer of the book of Vayikra. Our para, the para vikra opens up with here is the law when a man brings a man among you brings an offering and the Torah lays out how to bring this offering and Rashi spells out what genre of corban we are referring to at the start. We're going to be talking about all different types of corbanus. But what type of corbon are we referencing right now when the Torah first opens up with all the various of how to basically bring this corban? What type of animal? What type of bird, what type of flower, etc. What type of corban is this? It's not the obligatory corban or gift that one is compelled to bring when they sin. [snorts] It's not the holiday that they need to bring when there's a holiday. The Torah begins with what's called the nava, the donation, the you just give out of the generosity of your own heart. There's rules and parameters and how to do it right. And the question that uh various commentatories ask is why start with the optional one? Why not start with the required ones? Imagine you had a test [snorts] and at the start of the test the teacher puts the extra credit and then once you finish the extra credit you could start answering all the questions. It's like that's backwards. We have a certain amount of time here. Let's do what we need to do. And extra credit bonus will go at the end. Right? Imagine you go to a restaurant and they charge you a tip before they actually even charge you uh for for the for the meal itself. Let's first clear away what is obligatory. Whether it be a sin offering, whether it be a holiday offering, then teach us about the laws of bonus offerings, of donation offerings of Gorban Nadava. Why the reverse order? This is a question that different commentaries address [snorts] and it's more than just a technical question. It really is, as we'll soon see, an emotional question because everything that takes place in this Mishkan, in this house for God, [snorts] is not just the physical behaviors that were performed, but there's an emotional service that's attached to it. The altar represents the heart. The fire of the altar represents the passion. the corban. You know what the word corban means? It means sacrifice. But it also means comes from the word karov to come close. And the Torah is giving us a framework for how to come close to God. What is the first step? Now you would you might think the first step is do your obligations, do your duties, do what you got to do, do extra credit later. The Torah seems to be insinuating the reverse order. Why? Let's look at this para, guys, from a historical context. Here's the historical context. [snorts] The Jewish people leave Egypt. 50 days later, we receive the Torah at Mount Si. We are inspired. We are in seventh heaven. We are on fire. almost too much inspiration by the way because we kept dying from the glory of God. We couldn't handle it. We were finally revived and we said to Moshe, "Why don't you intercede on our behalf?" But you know what? The inspiration remained. You know how long that inspiration remained for? 40 days. That's it. Then the sin of the golden calf. At this point, God says, "Okay, inspiration's not working. You guys can't handle inspiration because you can't actually hold on to it. And the little bit that you do hold on, it just it just slips away. You need to build this relationship. I'm going to take a step back and instead of me revealing myself to you, you're going to build a space where you could experience me." That's the Mishkan. make for me a sanctuary and I will dwell in them. Our sages point out that God is not just dwelling in it, but he's dwelling in them because he wants each and every one of us to become a sanctuary for God. And in the remainder of the entire book of Exodus, we describe what this Mishkun looks like, how it's built. Finally, in the book of Leviticus, we describe what you do in that mishkun. But we also describe the process of inaugurating it because its inauguration was a huge and important day. And at this point, the inauguration didn't even yet happen. You know when the inauguration happens, right? On the eighth day, it's the eighth day that it was formerly inaugurated. >> [snorts] >> Who was supposed to serve in the Mishkan? Who is the lead service people? That's the kohanim. And ahen was the lead servant. But that only started from day one of inauguration which is the eighth day of when it was finally established. But the first seven days it was operated by Moshe. Finally on the eighth day Moshe officially inaugurated it. Now, why on the eighth day? And why did it take that long? And okay, that's a we'll get there in a couple parishes from now. But what's important to know is that this know is that this took place on the first of a Nissan. The first of Nissan is a is essentially like a y in some ways. It's a holiday. It's a It's not an official holiday where you can't like you can't desecrate and and and work and stuff, but is a it is a day worth commemorating. It's the day that Moshe officially established the Mishka. If you and you know how special this was, God saw this as a day of of marital closeness. The Torah says, "It was the day that Moshe finished the Mishk." And Rashi says, "Why use the word?" Because is associated with kala, which is a bride. And this Mishkan was like a wedding canopy for the Jewish people and God. It's that testimony that God finally actually wants to really be close with us after all we've gone through together. After the sin of the golden calf, after the forgiveness, after the tshouva, after the construction, everything, finally, God says, "I'm ready to be close with you. I'm ready to consummate this marriage. I'm ready to make this relationship real. At this point in history, [snorts] the sacrifices that are associated with holidays are not relevant yet because is not going to happen for another couple of days, another 15, 14 days. And similarly with all the other holidays, the sacrifices that are associated with tshoua, that are associated with atonement, that are associated with sin offerings, not relevant. You know why it's not relevant? We're not sinning at this point. There'll be [snorts] plenty of times where unfortunately the sin offering is going to be very relevant. And this is just not one of them. It's just not relevant yet. We'll get there when we get there. Right now, the only thing that's relevant is our own goodwill to be generous because of our relationship with Hashem. The Torah goes out of this goes out uh what seems out of order describing the optional corban, the corban, the generous corban before the obligatory corban because the obligatory corban simply isn't relevant yet unless you sin. And just that's just not the mode we're in. We're in the mode of [snorts] We're not in the mode of sin. We're in the mode of connection. We're in the mode of generosity. The Torah begins the whole story of corbanis of gifts to God with generosity because that is the space by which we start. And you know what real generosity means? Real generosity means I'm totally comfortable doing this. I'm not losing anything by it. I'm not sacrificing this for you. It's not even a sacrifice. Maybe sacrifice is the wrong word. Sacrifice means I'm losing something and I'm giving that to you. But I don't feel that way. I don't feel like I'm sacrificing. I feel like I want to do this. That's why the more accurate translation of kurban is from the word koov to come close. This isn't just sacrifice. This is me wanting to be close with you. I want to do this for you. Do you see that big shift in relationships? Generosity is what makes our relationship with Hashem most real. [snorts] It starts off with Rashi says something fascinating. Rashi points out that it says here are the laws of when a person brings an offering from you. Rashi asks why does it say from you? Obviously, it's from you. Who else is it from? Like I I don't see anyone else here. So Rashi says, well, look at look at the verse. I'm going to read the verse to you guys, okay? A man what he will offer from among you. Who is this man? We're referencing. Okay, if you just read it simply, we're referring to people. But why does it say Adam? So Rashi says it's actually referencing Adam. [snorts] Just as Adam, Adam did not steal to give his offerings to God, we don't steal to give our offerings to God. You know why Adam didn't steal to give his offerings to God? Because there was nobody else there to steal from. He never felt like he was losing by giving. because he felt like he had everything. And God is telling us, I don't want you to think you're losing by giving. I want you to feel like you have everything. I want you to be able to give from a space of generosity. That's the not from a place of obligation, but from a place of like take it. It's not a sacrifice. It's a gift. I want to do this. When we do this, when we have that perspective in our relationship with God, I don't just have to do this cuz I was told to. I get to do this. And nobody's telling me you don't have to do a dava. You don't ha you don't have to, right? Nobody's forcing you. There are other corbanas where we are forced. But when the start of the relationship is not based on force, but it's based on generosity, based on that space of I want to, you know what shifts? God becomes more generous with us and we become unconditionally embraced. I'll give you an example. If you if we rewind the clock a little bit to the story of Noah where God wanted to destroy the world, world was a very corrupt place. Remember Adam was by himself. There was nobody to steal from, right? So apparently the next generations didn't get that memo. And especially after the forbidden fruit, after eating from the tree of knowledge, we've internalized, man has internalized lust, internalized self-awareness. And when we are self-aware too much, we become less aware of other people or we become aware of how other people are encroaching on ourselves. Sometimes getting too much into ourselves can be a bad thing. And literally 10 generations later, the lack of respect for boundaries because people were so self-focused was so intense that God said, "We got to start over. We got to reboot. We got to destroy the world and start from scratch." God says to Noah, "I'm going to destroy the world because man's heart is evil." man's part is bad, right? Maybe this is where Sigman Freud got it from. But if we look inside, these are not good people. We have to and the only way to deal with this is get rid of it and start over. And that's what happens. Noah gives people the opportunity to do tshoua by taking 120 years to build his ark. that afterward the flood comes and the only people spared are Noah and his children and his wife. Noah exits the ark. God makes a covenant with Noah, shows him the rainbow and he says, "This is going to be the symbolism, the sign that will indicate I will never destroy the world even at times of anger. I will not destroy man because man is bad. Man's heart is evil. That's what he tells Noah. That's interesting. You just destroyed a a world because man's heart is evil. And now you're saying you're not going to destroy the world. It's not their fault. Man's heart is evil. Where's the consistency? Why was evil first a reason to destroy people? and now it's a reason to spare them or asked differently what does God see differently pre flood versus post flood the answer Noah's generosity what is the first thing Noah did when he got off the ark before even building the vineyard he built an altar he gave a gift to God and it was described as a it was a pleasant wasn't sent to God. He gave God pleasure. And when he was pleasing to God because he was generous, God saw, "Okay, so you have an evil heart. That's okay. I could still embrace you. There's other parts to you. There's parts to your heart that are good, too. I could see the full picture. But when that context is missing, it's hard to see everything that's good. When the context of a relationship that's missing, it's hard to see everything that's good. And our para reminds us that we start not from a space of God, I sinned. I need I need you to forgive me. God, I did something wrong. I need you to forgive me. Or God, a special holiday is coming up. What can I get you? What can I do for you? The anniversary is coming up. What should I do? We're coming from a space of total generosity. The time is not obligating us. The circumstance is not obligating us. It's not an obligation. It's a pleasure. We're not losing anything. We're gaining everything. And when we give from that space to God, who cares if our heart is a little bit off? God is still able to embrace us. This is true in interpersonal relationships as well. When we approach them from a space of generosity, not from a space of scarcity, we are able to be a a better version of us emerges that's able to be embraced in a much more real way. Okay, that's my story. I'm sticking to it.